Quotations about Vices

There is more than a morsel of truth in the saying, "He who hates vice hates mankind." ~W. MacNeile Dixon


Minor vices lead to major ones, but minor virtues stay put. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966


We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this. ~Holbrook Jackson


How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It's your combination sinners - your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards - who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute. ~Thornton Wilder


It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices, have very few virtues. ~Abraham Lincoln


Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue in the eyes of bigots. ~J. Petit-Senn


Idleness is the beginning of all vices. ~Proverb


There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. ~Woody Allen


The Anglo-Saxon conscience doesn't keep you from doing what you shouldn't; it just keeps you from enjoying it. ~Salvador de Madariaga


If we escape punishment for our vices, why should we complain if we are not rewarded for our virtues? ~John Churton Collins, Aphorisms in the English Review, 1914


Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals, 1836


When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices. ~Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld


No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. ~Bertrand Arthur William Russell, On Education, 1926


It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations. ~Walter Bagehot


Our virtues and vices couple with one another, and get children that resemble both their parents. ~George Savile, Marquess de Halifax, Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections


Without enthusiasm, virtue functions not at all, and vice only poorly. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes. ~Lady Marguerite Blessington